Franco Colapinto admits he will need more than five F1 races to get fully up to speed

Franco Colapinto has admitted that his five-race contract doesn’t leave him with enough time to extract the full potential of Alpine's Formula 1 car.

After an impressive if error-prone nine-race stint with Williams at the end of the 2024 season, Colapinto has secured an F1 comeback with Alpine from this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

However, the French outfit is only giving him five races to prove his worth, with the team silent on who will occupy the garage next to Pierre Gasly from the British GP in July.

Critics have questioned the decision to drop F1 rookie Jack Doohan after just six races, while many also believe that Alpine is putting too much pressure on his replacement Colapinto.

Asked if the length of his contract could force him into more mistakes, the Argentine said: “I know [what has been said], we will see once I drive.

“But I have a great opportunity and I'm happy to be back in F1. I didn't even think I would have five races, I'm just in a happy place and I'm dealing with [it] very well. At the moment I just want to get back in the seat and drive.

“Of course, you heard Carlos [Sainz] saying that he needs like 10 races to get used to the [Williams] car, I think five is not enough for me. I drove for nine in all my life in F1.

“It probably takes me a few more races, probably a couple more than five to get up to speed and maximise everything out of the car, but it is what I have. I just want to maximise it, enjoy it and try to do the best for the team.”

Alpine has made a tough start to the 2025 F1 season, with the A525 proving uncompetitive in both qualifying and race trim.

The Renault brand is believed to have been unhappy with the performance of Doohan, who failed to score a single point across the opening three races of the season.

Gasly also has found it tough to break inside the top 10 this year, having scored points on just two occasions so far. He finished an excellent seventh in the Bahrain Grand Prix and bagged an extra point in the sprint race in Miami after a number of drivers finishing ahead of him were penalised.

Asked if Alpine had given him any set targets to achieve in order to secure a contract extension beyond the original five-race term, Colapinto was coy about the matter.

“As a driver, I'm just trying to do it step by step,” he said. “I don't really know the car so a lot of new things are coming.

“I just want to do the basics right and then I'm not expecting any kind of results. The performance of teams is so, so tight that they are changing from track to track depending upon which one is stronger for each [track].

“FP1 and FP2 we will have a clear view of where we are at. [I’m] still working a lot with the team, the main goal for us is to make the car quicker, so we need to find a bit of performance. That's the main goal, to try to improve the performance a bit and then of course, after these five races we will see where we are.”

Colapinto moved up the junior ladder as a member of Williams’s F1 academy and has been loaned out by the Grove-based team to Alpine.

He was added to Alpine’s reserve driver roster in January and has since completed hundreds of laps as part of the squad’s TPC (testing of previous cars) programme.

But the 21-year-old feels he is ‘starting from zero’ at Imola this weekend, as he jumps into Alpine’s 2025 F1 car for the first time.

“I'm really excited,” he said. “Everything is new again. We start from zero. Of course, it wasn't the nicest to be after doing the last nine races of last year to step out [of a race seat].

“It wasn't what I wanted, but it was a good time to reflect on what happened last year and to learn from it. Happy to be back.

“Of course, it’s never nice circumstances when it happens like this, when you step in another driver's seat, but you never really chose the moment you get in Formula 1.

“I just take it, try to do my best and try to maximise everything for the job.”